There exist at present various specialized surgical instruments that the surgeon can use to perform different incisions in the cornea as required by refractive surgery or by trephination of the cornea. Thus, one such keratotomy serves to make radiary incisions for use, in particular, in correcting myopia (short sight). Another is designed to form transverse incisions on one or more meridians of the cornea, preferably in the form of circular arcs, in order to correct astigmatism. An apparatus is also known that is designed to perform trephination of the cornea for transplant purposes.
Although these instruments are extremely effective at performing the operations for which they are designed, there exists an unsatisfied need for equipment that is more simple and that enables a plurality of surgical and presurgical acts to be performed using the same basic equipment. Before making incisions, it is necessary to provide reference marks on the cornea so as to place the surgical instrument correctly firstly relative to the visual axis and second relative to the zones that are to be incised, as dictated by the nature of the disease to be corrected.
The invention seeks to provide a solution to this problem by proposing an instrument having a single body suitable for receiving a plurality of "tools", each being specialized in performing a particular operation.